Credit Union Australia (CUA) has announced it is teaming up with Tata Consultancy Services to implement a brand new core-banking system within the Queensland-based bank.

(Credit: CUA)

CUA will replace its 18-year-old home-grown legacy system with Tata Consultancy Services' BaNCS platform — a modernisation that is set to underpin its forward growth plans to become twice its current size.

CUA's CEO, Chris Whitehead, said that the banking overhaul is essential to meet future objectives.

"The implementation of a new core banking system will enhance our business capabilities, enabling us to meet our growth objectives and bring greater efficiencies across the business," Whitehead said in a statement today.

"It will also ensure our customers get greater and faster access to innovative products and a consistently good customer experience every time they bank with us," he added.

Whitehead said that selecting Tata Consultancy Services for the job of replacing the core system came after a lengthy consultation and selection process. President of Tata Consultancy Services, N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, said that both he and the company are "very pleased" about the new contract.

"[Tata Consultancy Services'] BaNCS Core Banking solution will definitely assist to drive new product development and improve efficiencies for CUA," he said.

"We will be utilising our local industry knowledge and extensive global experience to ensure CUA's new banking platform will be scalable and flexible enough to meet its long-term customer service expectations, as well as its back-end operational and data management requirements," he added.

CUA's group general manager of strategy and marketing, Andrew Hadley, told The Australian Financial Review that the system overhaul is set to take between 18 months and two years to complete.

"It really is the rock at the centre of all our future project activities," Hadley said, adding that the old system was no longer up to the job.

The system upgrade comes months after CUA customers were left in the lurch by the shutdown of its online banking platform due to the Queensland floods.

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